Hi everyone!!! Again, I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Debbie I love your pics!! Keep em coming! Your kiddos are adorable, and is your sons hair getting redder? I am so disappointed that neither of my girls got my red hair. It could be because its from a bottle! I am glad you guys had a great time. I am sorry about your Thanksgiving dilemma. I know exactly how you feel. I always feel torn at the holidays, like I dont want to hurt anyones feelings, spending more time w/one than the other. I would just rather do Christmas Eve at one house, and Christmas day at another, and Thanksgiving and Easter every other year (we could celebrate the weekend before w/the one that we wouldnt be with on THE day). Both are close to each other, about 15 mins apart, and about 45 mins from us, but its hard to split the day, and hard to eat 2 big meals. We are so blessed that we have them, and I know that when we dont, we will miss it all. It does get frustrating, but try not to let it ruin your holiday. I am finally learning that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, no matter how hard you try. We try our best, and thats the best that we can do. I just have to keep reminding myself of that! My mom is a die hard 1pm holiday meal person, and I know that my MIL doesnt always want to have it late, but she cant have it at 3pm because I cannot eat and run at my moms. Uggh! I am just curious to see how my brother having kids will alter our Christmas plans. We go to my MILs for breakfast at about 9am, open gifts, then run to my moms to get there at about noon to open gifts and then eat. Theyve gotten a little better about it because her breakfast used to be earlier, and my brother and sister would be upset that they had to wait so long for us to get there an open gifts. We would get to my moms by 11am! That all meant that I had to get up at 5am to shower and get ready so that after the girls opened their gifts, we had to get out the door to the ILs. One year, I had to wake DD14 up! For the past several years, theyve gotten up around 5am because they are so excited.
Thats great news about June, Sewer! So, wheres your ticker??
Tessa congrats on getting the trip paid off!
Tammie I am sorry about you not getting to spend Christmas w/your son and his family. I hope that your Thanksgiving w/them was wonderful!
Pam Thanks for the
Crocs deal link. I need to see if it is still good. Most of us wore Crocs the entire trip and they were so comfortable. I only wore my tennis shoes on one day.
Cammie is having a blast in WDW!
Hi to all of the newbies! Welcome!
WDW - - we had a wonderful time, the kids had a wonderful time and that is most important to me. Our weather couldnt have been any better. I wore jeans and short sleeved shirts on all days, and had a jean jacket for evening. Taylor wore shorts, then was chilly at night, but didnt want me to pack jeans in my backpack. We didnt get rain until Thursday, just as we exited Festival of the Lion King and decided that we were going to head back to the resort to pick up our carry on items, grab a bite to eat and head to the airport. We only used one rain poncho each as we headed to our bus stop at AK. Our flights were on time and things could not have gone any smoother. Our room at Pop was clean, and we spent very little time there only getting ready in the AM, getting ready for bed at night and sleeping! We didnt stay at all of the parks from opening until close, do any extra hours, or take any afternoon breaks. This was our first visit to AK and we loved it! I wish that we could have spent a full day there, but we did it on Thurs. We did get to do almost everything that we really wanted to do there, except for the Nemo show. I was amazed by Festival of the Lion King, but am amazed by most things Disney. Most everything there makes me cry, and if I look at my mom, its a definite. My parents had not seen most of it before, having only been to
Disneyland several times and DW once several years ago, but only to MK. Mom used a wheel chair the entire trip. She was not feeling that well, shes still having trouble breathing after her car accident, and cant walk far, but if you dont know her well, it was hard to tell. I felt bad for my dad, having to push her in the wheel chair the entire time, but he would not let any of us give him a break. There is no way that she could have done all of that walking. We tried to plan it so that we rode something, saw a show, rode something, ate
Her being in the wheel chair allowed us to Fast Pass almost everything, and not have to wait for buses, which was nice. I did feel very guilty about that. I feel like Mom missed out on a lot, especially in the shops, because its hard to get around some places in a wheel chair. She and my dad would wait outside while the rest of us went in and looked at some shops. We all stayed together 100% of the time, as I knew we would. My family wont do anything on their own. A couple of us would get ahead or fall behind, and my mom would worry about where everyone was. It made it hard, but it was OK. It was crowded, and lines were long. On our other trips, we didnt have someone in a wheel chair and didnt get to Fast Pass as much stuff, and we managed to see just about everything that we felt we needed to see. This time, it wouldnt have been that easy. To me, it seemed a lot more crowded than any other time weve been there. I took tons of pictures that I need to sort thru and put onto Photobucket and post here. I need to work w/my Photopass. I think we got a lot of pictures taken by them. It seemed like a lot to me. I bought my coffee mug and a 2-CD set that includes music from a lot of the rides and the MK opening song! I listened to it on the way to work and I love it!!
I had a ham sandwich in Africa (AK) for Thanksgiving lunch, and chicken pasta Alfredo in POP for Thanksgiving dinner! The girls, my sister and I went to my parents when we got home Thursday night, and stayed the weekend, coming home Sunday to put up our decorations and celebrate Darrins birthday. We had a second Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and dressing at about 1am! It was a fun weekend of lounging, eating, watching movies, visiting and more eating! My brother and his wife and my aunt were there most of the time, too. Darrin came by a couple of times, but stayed home to unpack and get a jump on the laundry. It was hard to come back to reality today. My saving grace is that I am on vacation from Dec 21 Jan 2. We just have so much to do before then!! I love this time of year!!!
Every night this week Ill be finishing up the Christmas tree and getting the house back in order from the trip. I need to squeeze in some Christmas cards and shopping as well. I am so behind!! We still have souvenirs on the kitchen counter. Darrin couldnt do outside decorations this weekend because it rained all weekend, so I hope that he can get them done this coming weekend. My grandma is here from Chicago until the end of December, so well be spending a lot of weekend time at my parents. Its usually the girls and I that spend the night, Darrin stays home w/the dogs. I pick up the dogs from boarding today because theyve been closed since weve been back.
So sometimes (not all the time) they really perk me up! 
I need to put some more holiday cuties in my siggie!
)
We are proud of them for deciding what works for their families, even though it feels a little empty. This year, we are doing "Christmas Eve" on Dec 22nd with our oldest and the In-laws. Hope this helps. 
She's a very sweet woman...just likes getting her way and no one challenged her before me. Of course DH & I are still married (13 yrs). We probably wouldn't be if I didn't make myself known. Good for your kids for telling you and great of you to be understanding.
Pam2
Our trip was awesome! I promise to get some pictures out here soon!
It seems like you were just there!
Maybe someday when your kids are older, so you don't feel guilty 
Just don't wait until I'm so old I need an ECV, okay?? 
